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THE hunted becomes the hunter at Newbridge on Saturday.
Newbridge is the Loddon Valley league's reigning premier, and with that comes the tag as the hunted.
However, given the Maroons' scratchy 3-4 start to their premiership defence and the dominance so far of their opposition, Pyramid Hill, the roles of the hunter are reversed.
At 7-0, a percentage of 222 and average winning margin of 63 points, the Bulldogs have established themselves as the team to beat - and therefore the hunted - ahead of the first half of the season drawing to a close on Saturday.
"There's no better challenge than playing the side on top of the ladder and that's the way we're looking at it... the chance to really test ourselves," Newbridge coach Brad Comer said on Friday.
"Pyramid Hill hasn't lost a game and is winning convincingly, but if we're desperate enough to win the game then we can get ourselves to 4-4.
"We'll have to play the full 120 minutes. We've probably been reliant on a dozen or so blokes, so it's going to take the full 22 on Saturday to get the job done."
Such is the evenness of the competition this year, the Maroons are only one game off third position, despite sitting outside the top five in sixth spot.
Much of the premiership talk is being centred around the duo of Pyramid Hill and Mitiamo, but Saturday on their home deck offers the Maroons the chance to show their credentials as a force to be still reckoned with and not to be discounted.
Comer has constantly lauded his back six since taking over as coach last year. The Maroons' defence will need to be at its best on Saturday to restrict the Bulldogs, whose average score of 117 is more than 20 points clear of the next best, Mitiamo (96).
"Something that has let us down at times this year has been our midfield not working both ways," Comer said.
"We'll have to help our backline out as much as we can because it looks like Pyramid Hill is young and quick and can score quickly."
The Maroons have lost forward Cameron Rinaldi to an Achilles injury, but regain another forward in Chris Dixon, who returns to the line-up after missing last week's eight-point loss to Bears Lagoon-Serpentine with concussion.
Dixon is one of 14 members of last year's premiership team who will take on Pyramid Hill.
* Saturday's games - Newbridge v Pyramid Hill, Mitiamo v Marong, Maiden Gully YCW v BL-Serpentine, Calivil United v Inglewood.
Meanwhile, there are no games in the North Central league on Saturday due to the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
LVFNL SEASON TRACKER:
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